Though the government may have made right to education a fundamental right by bringing into force the Right To Education (RTE) Act of 2009, but government schools are lagging far behind in providing quality education. No need to mention the reasons here as everybody knows the same.
In a significant judgment, the Hon’ble Allahabad High Court (HC) on Tuesday directed the Uttar Pradesh Government (“UP”) to make it mandatory for the government employees and those serving in the local bodies to send their kids to government-run primary schools. In its order, the HC asked the state government to take appropriate steps to ensure that these guidelines are implemented from the next academic session.
While hearing a group of petitions by Shiv Kumar Pathak and several others, the HC bench of Justice Sudhir Agarwal also suggested strict penalties for those officials/employees failing to follow the new rules.
In case the government employees fail to send their kids to the government primary schools, an amount, which they are paying as fee for their wards in private schools, will be deducted from their salaries every month. The court also directed the chief secretary to submit a compliance report in next six months.
During the course of hearing, the court also pulled up the state government for pathetic conditions of government schools and the quality of education.
(Source: India Today)
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